Sanchez genius, Sandro limitations, Henry importance — knee jerks
Friday, 6th Mar 2015 02:06 by Antti Heinola

A depressing night as decent performances give way to a defeat against Arsenal and increasingly forloun hopes of avoiding relegation. Antti Heinola looks at what we learnt on Wednesday night…

Strength in depth

This for me is the major problem. We had one fully fit central midfielder on the pitch and none on the bench. By half time we were down to our last two fit centre backs, and one of them is on the verge of retirement. We've been short up front all season.

I thought we played really well tonight at times and there was a lot of effort and there was certainly a plan. But in the end, this team looked exactly what it was - patched up. With no Leroy Fer, Joey Barton's suspension, no Ale Faurlin, Sandro's lack of fitness, no Richard Dunne, Mauricio Isla's injuries etc we just didn't have quite enough tonight to cause Arsenal enough problems or quite enough to contain the excellent Sanchez. We still have a chance, of course, but Harry's short term signings have left Ramsey with a bit of a ragtag squad that looks like it will go down - but at least it'll go down fighting.

The Sandro substitution

Knee Jerk One leads nicely to this. I've seen the decision to sub Sandro heavily criticised on the message board, as it was by one or two around me at the game. But for me it was abundantly clear after half an hour Sandro had already gone. After a good opening 20 minutes, his influence lessened significantly. Fortunately the excellent Henry was around to cover and pick up the pieces, but we really had very little in the central midfield area.

After the break, it only got worse. The idea that things really started to go wrong after Sandro went off is wrong, because Arsenal dominated those 15 minutes at the start of the second half too, as they came out with renewed purpose and Sanchez stepped up a gear or three and mercilessly tormented the willing Furlong. It can be debated whether Niko was the right man to bring on, of course. In retrospect after a thoroughly awful display, it was probably wrong and Isla or even Vargas would probably have done better in there. But when you only have Henry and you're picking a partner for him from a striker, a wing back and a number ten, it's not a great choice. I wasn't surprised he chose Niko - but I was surprised at the absolute poverty of Niko's careless passing, which was frankly embarrassing.

Charlie Austin

So, onto happier stuff. This was one of his best displays of the season. A few months ago there were a lot of sniffy people saying he couldn't hold the ball up, or lay it off particularly well, and so on. Tonight's display showed just how much he has learned and worked on his game since the start of the season. Confident, bull-like, taking it upon himself to drop back and win the ball because Krancjar sure as hell wasn't going to, and a superb goal on top of that. Man of the Match for me and if we do go down his loss threatens to be as catastrophic as the loss of Ferdinand in '96. Simply, we'd be down already without him. And he *really* cares. A diamond.

Matty Phillips

Now, here's what happens with some coaching and some belief. This is the player we thought we had bought. Yet another assist, although this one from a rather mishit cross, but they all count. He put in several wonderful crosses tonight, but I expect that from him. What we also got was a great willingness to run at his man, some sublime skill, and, perhaps most importantly, an absence of the timidity he has so often shown. He won some headers. He got stuck in. He didn't turn his back - previously one of his most infuriating failings. A new player - huge credit to him and Ramsey. He gives us a threat we didn't previously have.

Karl Henry

Didn't like his signing. Not really sure why we bought him. Always been an odd one. Jettisoned last season about halfway through after a couple of horror shows. But he's now holding our midfield together as the other central midfielders either go lame or act like tits. Another very good display from him - and you couldn't envy him either, having to sweep up after a semi-fit Sandro and a well below-par Kranjcar. Well done. I was sure we'd ditch him this summer - but we may well be needing him, not least because I bet he's quite cheap.

Sanchez genius

We can be critical of the team and the tactics and look at mistakes and wonder if Furs 2.0 was left too isolated, but really Sanchez was the difference. Ozil did little, Cazorla was tidy, but played very deep, we dealt well with Giroud on the whole I thought… But Sanchez was miles ahead of our team - and his own. First half, as Phillips helped out Darnell we did manage to keep him reasonably quiet, but second half he was sublime. What a player, and what an attitude. I'm not sure it really matters who you have at right back - he's deadly.

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